


all stories are love stories

by psycho_raven



Category: Psycho-Pass
Genre: ... or was there, M/M, One Shot, Past Relationship(s), Relationship Study, Relationship Through the Years, Sasayama is there, detective noir parallel, kou is actually a sap, kougami is a pretentious idiot, no beta we die like men, past stablished relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2021-02-08 09:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21473428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/psycho_raven/pseuds/psycho_raven
Summary: Kougami suspects that he imagined another story.
Relationships: Ginoza Nobuchika/Kougami Shinya
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50





	all stories are love stories

“You don't do that."

They have been watching the movie for almost an hour when Gino makes the first observation. Kogami looks surprised, mostly because Gino usually saves his criticisms to himself when it's Kougami's turn to choose what to watch. But also because it means he was paying attention.

"If you could be more specific..."

"All this detective act. You really like those things, don't you? That's why your assistant has that unnecessary hat and you always say those phrases…” Ginoza pauses, he shakes his head looking for a way to word it and then continues. 

“Even so, you skip this part,” Nobuchika points at the screen in which a long-legged woman sits at the detective’s desk. “All the flirting and surrounding yourself with women like the detectives from your movies.”

Kougami laughs like only Ginoza sees him do, throwing his head back, letting out a sound more like a bark but just as cheerful. It takes him a few seconds to reply under Gino's serious gaze.

"I guess I'm not that committed to the role after all.” 

He doesn’t say '_ I don’t like women that much _ ' or ' _ I like you, Gino _' because he thinks it isn’t necessary. Not all stories have to be completely identical even if all the stories are the same, at the end of the day.

They keep watching the movie. Gino doesn’t comment much more. Kougami brings more popcorn. Those are the best days.

* * *

"I can't believe you've never seen Hawaii Five-O, I still have so much to teach you, Inspector."

"I don't criticize you for never opening a book in your life” 

"Shhh, Kougami pay attention. Those are Gino-sensei and you.” 

Kougami tries to watch it, he really does. And he believes that Sasayama is right on some points. The detectives have known each other for years, partners in crime (or rather against crime) and unstoppable when together. But...

"I guess they don't fall in love, do they?"

“What the fuck are you talking about.”

Sasayama sounds outraged and Kougami shakes his head, smiling, telling him to forget it. Maybe they do and nobody else knows. Maybe all the stories are love stories.

* * *

"Why it’s always revenge?"

Since Division One was regrouped with both of them as inspectors, Ginoza and Kougami have barely spent time together outside the office. But it’s Friday night and Shinya didn’t have to insist for pops to make a small change on the shifts, something to make Kougami's rest fit with Gino’s so he could take him to watch a movie at home.

Gino keeps talking, leaving Kogami with a slice of half-bitten pizza and his grey eyes fixed on him. 

"Since we know each other that you have shown me countless movies, but there are several things that repeat in each one of them.” 

"That's the point of the tropes, Gino. They take certain ideas and repeat them in different ways.” 

Gino doesn’t seem satisfied with the explanation and continues. Frowning slightly, arms crossed over his chest as if thinking about the next clue of a case.

"Why revenge? By the end of the movie the detective isn't even thinking about whoever he was avenging, he always does it about himself... I don't understand it.” 

Kougami smiles unable of hiding the affection that softens his features. Of course, Gino wouldn't understand something like that. He wants to kiss him but contains the urge. 

"I guess revenge is just an excuse for violence. To jump directly into the abyss. But you know what? I believe that revenge goes hand in hand with love. The detective always loves his partner, either as a brother or something else. Maybe he wants to follow him wherever he went.” 

It sounds like a cautionary tale and Gino can’t articulate why the explanation makes him angry. It makes him shiver. So he takes Kogami by the tie and kisses him hard.

Ginoza really hopes that Kogami's commitment to those characters isn’t that deep. He doesn't plan to die anyway. There won’t be any need of avenging anyone. 

* * *

  
  
"How did the story end?"

Ginoza is hunched over himself, massaging the bridge of his nose after another sleepless night with both Kougami and Tsunemori in the office, tracking down Makishima who suddenly ceased being a ghost but refuses to stop haunting them.

The tips of the bangs fall over his face and from where Kougami sits the shine on the glasses hides his gaze. It makes him wonder how long it has been since the last time he saw Gino’s face.

Nobuchika takes advantage of Tsunemori getting up to go for a coffee and asks: 

"The ones you always showed me. How did they end?"

"Don't you remember, Gino?"

"I want you to tell me." He denies, obviously frustrated, then looks up. “There is a third character, right? Someone who convinces the detective to stop.” 

Kogami smiles without any hint of joy. A grin that squeezes something into Gino’s chest. 

“That happens in other stories, Gino. Happier ones in which his heart can be changed, but noir doesn’t work that way. There is a reason the city is always raining. The detective never loved the girl, not that way. Love won’t convince you to give up, quite the opposite.” 

“You told me they did it for love. All the revenge. Did you...?” 

They don’t talk about Sasayama. Never did, not even when the corpse was right before their eyes. And even now they don’t address it directly. But it’s probably the last chance they have and Kougami answers with honesty he doesn’t remember having. 

"I sure did, but in a different way,” Another pause for Kougami to take a cigarette between his lips, breathing the smoke into his lungs with unnerving calm. Gino never forgets Spinel was Sasayama’s favorite brand. That Kougami didn’t smoke before that incident. 

“Do you remember Hawaii Five-O? That cop series he showed us one summer. I always believed that the two protagonists, the main duo, were more than partners.” 

Gino doesn't want to know anything more, he doesn't want to remember Sasayama saying that those two were just like them. Inseparable. He doesn’t want to think about Sasayama or the case, or that all the stories end the same way.

He hits the table with a clenched fist and turns his back on Kogami. Tsunemori enters with a cup of coffee seconds after and doesn’t understand the tension in the room, the pain in Ginoza's gaze nor the determined sadness in Kogami's dark eyes.

"I'm going to show you how it ends, Gino."

* * *

Kougami feels his head spin while his eyes are fixed at some distant point in the ceiling, the beep in his ears rumbling inside his bones as the result of the punch with which Gino blew his face. He is sad, a little happy too. Resigned, relieved. He doesn't know. He will never know. 

In none of his stories, the detective lived so long... Neither in the books nor in the movies did they show him what happens after the trigger is pulled. No one ever told him what happened if the fellow policemen fell in love.

Kougami suspects that he imagined another story.

The cold of the concrete against his skin, still hot from the fight, reminds him of the walls of the alleys against his back when he kissed Ginoza fiercely after a solved case.

With that image in his head, he stays there for a little longer, convinced that at the end of the day all the stories are love stories.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> In the manga, Sasayama actually says Gino and Kou are like the cops from Hawaii Five-O.
> 
> ... god, aren't we happy they are back together again?


End file.
